VIDEO: Koala wanders into hospital emergency department

A HOSPITAL in south-east Australia was treated to an appearance from an unsuspected visitor last month, when a koala casually entered the building and inspected its Accident and Emergency wing.

The animal, named Blinky Bill after a famous 1930s cartoon was captured by the CCTV camera at the Western District Health Service Hospital in western Victoria casually entering through the building's front doors before exploring a number of the hospital's rooms.

Workers at the hospital said that they saw the koala make his way through the hospital but decided to leave it alone so as not to scare the animal. According to staff, it is the first time they have seen a koala enter the hospital but did say that it wasn't uncommon in the area for the animals to enter people's houses.

Rohan Fitzgerald said that the koala "seemed to know exactly what he was doing" and appeared to be "relaxed" as he explored the department.

He said that the koala investigated for "about three minutes and after it "investigated sufficiently and made sure everything was in order" he then "decided to exit the building."

Despite the CCTV being taken over two weeks ago, the hospital only decided to post it onto their Facebook page on Monday. Since then it has gone viral, being watched more than 120,000 times and shared by over 2,000 Facebook users.